My 6x4 darkroom! woot woot!

[ibcrewin]

With my wife and kids cashing out early last night I decided to go for it..

I set up a darkroom under the kitchen table. I pushed it up against the wall and clamped the spare drapes around the 3 other sides. The enlarger was too high, so I stuck that out a bit and covered the space with a black cloth. I used the kitchen chairs for support.

I was developing film that night so I saved the stop bath and fixer. Mixing up some ilford paper developer was pretty easy and took no time at all.. I have some old expired Kodak grade 3 paper that I got with my darkroom kit and I went to town. I tested the paper and it's great! No fogging at all!

The paper was 8x10 so it didn't fit the printfile pages so well. I decided to make prints instead. I made 4 prints all together. with a few test strips to check for exposure. I must say this is all very addicting.

Now I have about 50 questions, but here just a few.

1. I was getting exposures of 10-15 seconds for a 8x10 print. Is this too short? should this be going longer? I might have left the print in the developer for too long btw. I was lost track of the time it was in there since I don't have a good darkroom timer.

2. How do you clean your trays? I dumped the fixer through a funnel that has a mesh filter into my fixer container. There was all this stuff that looked like dust. I take it that's the silver?

3. What size paper do you print your contact sheets on?

Thanks for your help!

Ivan

 

[Ducky]

I set up a darkroom under the kitchen table. I pushed it up against the wall and clamped the spare drapes around the 3 other sides. The enlarger was too high, so I stuck that out a bit and covered the space with a black cloth. I used the kitchen chairs for support.

Ivan

My back hurts just thinking about it.

A little initiative is all it takes. I'll be looking at the answers myself since I'd like to make contact sheets. I develop my own film but haven't printed yet (I scan and inkjet).

Congrats and thanks for the inspiration.

 

[Bryan Lee]

Ive been having that argument again latley, whether to set up my darkroom again as its all in boxes, me says yes, me says "Dont Do It!" then me argues some more, misses the nostalgia, does not miss buying film and freaking out on heat, moisture, fungus, humidity, and cleaning, finding rotten negatives, and the endless blame I put onto other persons when thing go wrong, with digital I just blame everything on Bill Gates.

I have my eight ft. sink downstairs, the one I dreamed about for twenty years, after moving it just lays there like the last unsold coffin in a old warehouse covered in cobwebs and dust. Me argues with me again, photography has me and Me a little over the edge, sorry for the boredom of my endless, useless text concerning my analog impotence, maybe a little Zeiss Porn will get me back into my own personal red light district, but then my wife would always be wondering what the hell I was doing in there, Thais do not understand solitude, they fear being alone, much less closing the door and locking it, thats the equivalent of one choosing to go to hell here in the land of happy multiple Buddhas.


Contact prints are only limited by your negative, not the paper, if you have some weird paper laying around just make some little cardboard cut outs and place as many negatives as you want on there, then uncover them and cover again for exposure.

 

[palec]

Wow, Bryan, this is one epic post!

 

[JoeV]

1. I was getting exposures of 10-15 seconds for a 8x10 print. Is this too short?

I find that my normal exposure times end up being around 15-30 seconds; your time sounds fine, as long as your timer is accurate, and you don't plan on having to do dodging/burning; you want to give yourself a long enough time to make such manipulations accurately, but not too long that the exposure drags out and vibration of the enlarger head blurrs the image.

2. How do you clean your trays?

I have trays dedicated to each chemical, marked "D", "S" or "F" on the backside; then I just rinse them and let them drip dry, not worrying about cross-contamination. If you want to get really fussy, there is a tray cleaner available online, can't remember the name however. It's easier just to dedicate your trays.

3. What size paper do you print your contact sheets on?

I usually don't contact print my rollfilm negatives; I can look at the negatives and usually tell which images will be okay. Or I scan them on the flatbed scanner and review the positive images that way first. For a 24 exposure roll you should be able to contact print it to a single 8"X10" sheet, however.

I should add that if you live in the States, go to Staples office supply store and there you'll find 8.5"x11" clear storage sleeves that are much less expensive than 'photography grade' sleeves, and give you more room to get the 8"x10" paper in and out.

~Joe

 

[ibcrewin]

Cool stuff..

Ducky, Just do it! It's pretty awesome. I grew up on film but mostly blew it off. Went digital when the daughter was born, and now experiencning a personal rebirth with film..

Brian, I'd love to have that kind of space!! Get your stuff out of the box or send it to me

Joe, Thanks for the tips.. I was thinking I might have been doing something wrong with those times.

4. How long do you put your print in each bath for? I was developing for 30-45 mississippi's, stoping for 15, and fixing for 30 (1+4) dilution.

 

[nikon_sam]

The exposure time will vary depending on enlarging lens aperture...I set mine around f11 and exposure times are around 4 to 5 seconds...
A good resetable timer is a must for me...I set mine at 2 minutes for RC paper and 3 for fiber based paper...
8x10 paper for contact sheets...
Stop and Fix trays just rinse in hot water but the developer tray gets an extra wash with Tray Cleaner...this gets the dark stuff off the bottom...
After reading about your darkroom set up I'll never complain about having to use the downstairs bathroom for mine...

 

[nikon_sam]

I have trays dedicated to each chemical, marked "D", "S" or "F" on the backside; then I just rinse them and let them drip dry, not worrying about cross-contamination. If you want to get really fussy, there is a tray cleaner available online, can't remember the name however. It's easier just to dedicate your trays.

I marked my trays the exact same way (since they were all the same color)
I have a very old bottle of Nacco Tray Cleaner (it's got to be 20 years old) that I use to clean the developer tray...
I just picked up a new bottle of Clayton Developer Systems Cleaner that should be around for the next 20 years...you use very little and mix it with water...swish it around in the tray and watch the silvery muck clean up...
You don't really need to do this but I get very fussy about dirty dingy stained trays and measuring cups...

 

[palec]

For the developing times check the chemistry instructions.
Multigrade dev 1:9, 60 seconds for RC, 120 seconds for FB at 20C, it depends on temperature, the lower it is, the longer dev time is needed.

 

[ibcrewin]

Thanks Sam.. I had it at f/8 or so. I could have definitely used some shorter exposure times. I think I am going to move the operation to the spare room though. The tight space makes for some sloppy work at times.

I must say, I can definitely see how you could do this whole bit from the trunk of a car! That might actually be easier!

Palec. In my haste, I forgot to look up the time but from memory I used the 30-45 mississippi's. I plan on refining my process by making notes and hanging them up on the wall before proceeding.

 

[pesphoto]

You must have a closet, or corner of a basement you could use.
You should post a pic of this darkroom setup. For inspirational purposes only of course.

 

[ibcrewin]

You must have a closet, or corner of a basement you could use.
You should post a pic of this darkroom setup. For inspirational purposes only of course.

You know, I thought about that only after I tore it down.. Shouldn't be too hard to put back together. I live in NYC. I can't use the bathroom as a darkroom because if my wife or daughter need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, i'm the one that gets hosed. I also don't have a basement or a spare closet. I do have a spare room that I think will ultimately be the darkroom but i'm going to have to go to some length to make it light tight. Until then the kitchen table is it! Having your nose 2 feet from the fixer tray really puts you in the moment!

 

[drewbarb]

Having your nose 2 feet from the fixer tray really puts you in the moment!

You're a mad man. I love the ingenuity!

 

[Bryan Lee]

Thanks Sam.. I had it at f/8 or so. I could have definitely used some shorter exposure times. I think I am going to move the operation to the spare room though. The tight space makes for some sloppy work at times.

I must say, I can definitely see how you could do this whole bit from the trunk of a car! That might actually be easier!

Palec. In my haste, I forgot to look up the time but from memory I used the 30-45 mississippi's. I plan on refining my process by making notes and hanging them up on the wall before proceeding.

One time I considered converting a old van parked in a garage into a darkroom, I'm sure it would work perfectly as you could paint the windows black and use sheet metal screws to build everything where you could reach it from a swivel chair, an 8 track would be a bonus. I'm forever reminded of the traveling photographers who photographed the west via horse drawn wooden wagons, it makes me feel stupid when I start complaining about my present circumstance.

I just unloaded 50 kilos of freshly made hardwood charcoal and close to two hundred pounds of tropical hardwood thats been eaten out by termites for 10 years in the jungle and is now heartwood downstairs. My custom made 8 ft. sink is laying over in the corner of my blacksmith shop, if I want to use it I will have to get away from the grit, grime, black suet and smoke that gos with hammer forging steel into implements.

I have been looking for a new office, possibly a space I can set up, but will have to see what happens, my computer is filthy from the outside in and I'm going to have to replace it, I will have to get a separate space anyway as this is no longer workable.


OP, sorry for going off topic, hats off to you guys who work with little and create much far as darkrooms go, I'm a spoiled brat, my images are mostly less than what I saw and my printing abilities flat out suck, I'm never happy with my pictures, lately with digital the suckage is just instant.

 

[nikon_sam]

OP, sorry for going off topic, hats off to you guys who work with little and create much far as darkrooms go, I'm a spoiled brat, my images are mostly less than what I saw and my printing abilities flat out suck, I'm never happy with my pictures, lately with digital the suckage is just instant.[/QUOTE]


Thanks for my laugh of the day...very funny...and I did laugh out loud...

 

[ChrisN]

... my images are mostly less than what I saw and my printing abilities flat out suck, I'm never happy with my pictures, lately with digital the suckage is just instant.

That's a big plus for film - the processing delays the disappointment!

I've got a roll from last week waiting for developing - I might just let it sit another week or so. Ah - "I see you quiver with anticipation!"